Economist, Apr 18, 2015

choi

(1) Entrepreneurship in India | Ready, Steady, Go; Why creating jobs in India is an uphill struggle—and what to do about it.
www.economist.com/news/business- ... t-do-about-it-ready

Quote:

"India’s population rivals China’s in size, but has a far younger complexion. That India is so much poorer in most other regards seems only to add to its allure. Those who missed out on China’s boom might still catch the wave in India.

“Mr Sharma thinks factories can still be India’s salvation. But manufacturing-led growth has become harder to pull off. Modern factories use more machinery and less labour than in the past. While India was making half-hearted reforms, China was securing its position in global supply chains. It is now tougher for aspiring nations such as India to break in. It is perhaps for this reason that others look for hope in India’s vibrant services sector.

Note:
(a) This is a book review on two books:
(i) Mihir Sharma, Restart; The last chance for the Indian economy. Random House India, 2015, and
(ii) Hindol Sengupta, Recasting India; How entrepreneurship is revolutionising the world’s largest democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Nov 18, 2014.

(b) complexion (n): “overall aspect or character <by changing the complexion of the legislative branch — Trevor Armbrister>”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complexion
(c) "Manmohan Singh’s famed budget of July 1991 was badly flawed because the reforms it contained were incomplete. Mr Singh opened up goods markets to competition but did nothing to free markets for land, labour and capital."

Manmohan Singh
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manmohan_Singh
(1932-  ; prime minister 2004-2014; minister of finance 1991-1996)

DPhil (Oxford) 1957 (in economics)

choi

(2) Information technology | Caged Lions; The many differences between Bill Gates, Andy Grove and Steve Jobs.
www.economist.com/news/business- ... ve-jobs-caged-lions
(book review on David Yoffie and Michael Cusumano, Strategy Rules; Five timeless lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs. Harper, 2015)

Quote:

"ADULATION of its leaders is a feature of the information-technology industry. Dozens of books sing the praises of Bill Gates, Andy Grove and the late Steve Jobs, the famed bosses, respectively, of Microsoft, Intel and Apple. Attempts to compare and contrast these chief executives, however, are rare. Reducing this deficit is the mission of ‘Strategy Rules’ by David Yoffie, of Harvard Business School, and Michael Cusumano, of MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

"The authors could have dug deeper into why both Microsoft and Intel are a lot less relevant today, as number-crunching is moving to mobile devices and computing clouds. Microsoft came late to both. As for Intel, most smartphones and tablets do not have its processors inside * * * Apple once again is the exception: Jobs relaunched the firm around mobile devices when he returned to take the helm in 1997.

“One reason for the relative decline of both Microsoft and Intel, the authors argue, is that both Mr Gates and Mr Grove allowed the people they hired as deputies to succeed them. As chief executives, these ‘complements’ in the end proved to be disappointments. Another risk is that an organisation that is set up to expand and protect one platform eventually becomes a cage that keeps its IT lions from conquering new territory.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest.